Hard Facts – HillFaith

MYTH-BUSTERS: No, Christians And Muslims Do Not Worship The Same God

It’s a truism in much of today’s ecumenical efforts that Christians worship the same deity that Muslims do because both are monotheistic, that is, they each contend there is one god, not many.

The reality is that there are profound differences between the essential concepts of God held by orthodox Christians and the two major branches of Muslim belief.

Philosopher William Lane Craig contends the Muslim concept of god is “morally defective” and explains why in this video by first describing the Christian concept:

“As the greatest conceivable being, a morally perfect being, God must be all-loving. And this is exactly what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God loves sinners, His love is impartial, it is universal, it is unconditional,” Craig says.

“And this is a world of difference from the god of the Quaran. According to the Quaran, god does not love sinners. God in the Quaran only loves those who first love him,” Craig continues.

“So that his love rises no higher than the sort of love that Jesus said tax collectors and sinners exhibit. They love those that love them,” he said. “The Quaran says god does not love the very people that John 3:16 says that God love so much that He sent His only son to die for them.”

THINK ABOUT THIS: Free Will Is Impossible If We Live In A Strictly Material Universe

Among the attributes that most distinguish humans from all other creatures is our ability to perceive alternative courses of action and to make choices among those alternatives. That’s called “free will.” Our laws and system of justice assume we all have this unique ability.

But if we live in a material universe that is a product of and is governed only by the action/reaction processes of atoms and forces in motion, then there can be no such thing as free will. Our decisions to act in a certain way are nothing more than the consequences of those atoms reacting according to the sequence of causes and effects.

“No set of dominoes is held accountable for how they fall,” contends NBC “Dateline” cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace in the following brief video. “Dominoes have no choice in the matter because they fall in a certain way based on prior physical causes.” Think about it, are you just another domino?

Ever Wonder ‘Who Made God?’

That’s a question often posed by those who deny God’s existence, but, as Tom Hammond explains in “What Time Is Purple,” wondering who made God makes about as much sense as pondering where on the clock does the royal color appear.

“What Time Is Purple” is a mere 45 pages, but it’s full of clarity, logic and common sense about the most important questions we all think about it at one time or another. Be careful, though, as it may cause you to revise how you answer those questions.

To get a free copy of this challenging book, just click on its cover in the sidebar to the right and I will get yours in the mail ASAP.

NOTE: IF THE CONTACT BUTTON DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU, SEND ME YOUR SNAIL MAIL AT mt.hillfaith@gmail.com.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN: If There’s A Code, There’s Gotta Be A Code-Maker

Biochemist Fazale Rana’s boyhood hopes to become a major league baseball player ended when he moved up to the Babe Ruth League and discovered he couldn’t read the code.

The “code” in Rana’s case was the indicator in the third-base coach’s stream of signs to him just before he stepped into the batter’s box. Among much else, the coach’s signs were meant to ensure batter and runner were on the same page when the next pitch was thrown.

Rana’s experience was an early lesson that served him well later in life when he became a biochemist and a researcher for a Fortune 500 corporation: Codes require code-makers, the more complex the code, the more intelligent the code-maker must be. Continue reading “INTELLIGENT DESIGN: If There’s A Code, There’s Gotta Be A Code-Maker”

HARD FACTS: Persecution Is Every Day for North Korean Christians. This Is Sang-chul’s Story

Americans of all stripes tend to ignore the reality that the world is full of torture, persecution and martyrdom for millions of Christians in other countries. It’s not here, so we only think about it occasionally, if at all.

Sang-chul is a North Korean who faces the prospect of death every day because that is the penalty simply for using the word “god” in conversation with the wrong person.

Same for being found with a Bible or sharing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus. People are “disappeared” by their government, never to be heard from again for doing such things.

And yet Sang-chul’s faith and that of thousands of other members of the North Korean underground church continues to be strong and growing. Thanks to Voice of the Martyrs, his story is being heard around the world, thanks to the following video. Continue reading “HARD FACTS: Persecution Is Every Day for North Korean Christians. This Is Sang-chul’s Story”

Could The Older You Convince The Younger You? About VIP Stuff?

It’s been said that maturity is being able to admit that you didn’t really know it all when you were younger and then changing your ways of doing and thinking as a consequence.

“Cold-Case Christianity” author J. Warner Wallace (screen shot from video).

But does that process also occur when it comes to issues concerning God, your eternal destiny, what are your priorities for your time, talent and treasure. and how to live your life on a daily basis as an individual and with others?

It can be immensely difficult, the getting to the point of realizing your views on those issues often are unthinking, unstated assumptions or presuppositions that are products of habits, emotions, erroneous ideas we picked up from others or faulty logic that reflects our inexperience or lack of consistent thought. Continue reading “Could The Older You Convince The Younger You? About VIP Stuff?”

One-Third Of Americans Attend Church Regularly; More Than Half Pray Often

Fifty-four percent of Americans say they pray at least a couple of times a week and a third of them go to church at least once or twice a month, according to a national survey conducted by YouGov for The Economist.

People worship in song. (Photo by William White on Unsplash)

The survey asked 125 questions and was primarily focused on presidential politics and produced a major campaign development with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) surging to a dead-heat with former Vice-President Joe Biden in the contest for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

The final five questions concerned religious views and practices.

The survey told 1,500 people that “people practice their religion in different ways,” then asked them “outside of attending religious services, how often do you pray?” Continue reading “One-Third Of Americans Attend Church Regularly; More Than Half Pray Often”

Yale Computer Science Legend David Gelernter Says Goodbye To Darwinism

Professor David Gelernter of Yale’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is famous for having predicted the World Wide Web years before its appearance, as well as having conceived or designed innumerable computing tools in wide use throughout the world.

Yale Professor David Gelernter. (Screen shot from interview with Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson.)

But Gelernter is also something of a Renaissance Man because he is a prolific lecturer and author, the latter including works of fiction, technical articles and art criticism. Plus, he’s a member of the National Council of the Arts.

But there is one thing Gelernter is not, at least not anymore, and that is a believer in contemporary Darwinism. The Yale professor explained why in May in a Claremont Review of Books (CRB) article provocatively entitled “GIving Up Darwin.” Unfortunately, this may be the first you’ve heard about it. Continue reading “Yale Computer Science Legend David Gelernter Says Goodbye To Darwinism”